Tag: HISTORY
Over a half-century ago, then-mayor William O’Dwyer buried a time capsule at 370 Jay Street in Brooklyn, which was the site of the Board of Transportation building at the time. The contents? Sexy microfilmed documents relating to the construction of the building. Even if it is only just a bunch of old documents, on Wednesday […]
Archeologists recently found out that Stonehenge was once a complete circle, destroying long held beliefs about the enigmatically placed stones. Now, there has been an even bigger discovery. Using high tech magnetometers — “advanced metal detectors — ground-penetrating radar, electromagnetic sensors and three-dimensional laser scanners,” scientists were able to peek beneath the ground surrounding the site for the first time. […]
Google Street View Egypt launched a new addition this week, giving internet users around the globe access to panoramic, 360 degree views of the Great Pyramids of Giza and other historical sites. Google can now add the Cairo Citadel, the necropolis of Saqqara and the Hanging Church to their list of documented monuments, which already featured the Colosseum, […]
A new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society will feature artifacts from the city yesteryears, celebrating New York Times writer Sam Roberts’ new book A History Of New York In 101 Objects. The selection of items is diverse, covering hundreds of years and many different cultures. Among them are the water keg with which Governor DeWitt Clinton […]
Cats have quite a dark and checkered past. After their divine reign in Ancient Egypt, they soon descended into the depths of Hell – or at least, that’s what many people believed for centuries. Author and PhD Art Historian Paul Koudounaris attempted to set the record straight during a lecture on demonic cats at the Morbid […]
The late rapper J Dilla’s custom-made Minamoog Voyager synthesizer has been recently donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The synth — along with 11 other objects used by the contributors to American music history, from Chuck Berry to Chuck D — will be shown at the “Musical Crossroads” exhibition, to inaugurate the opening of […]
Recently, developers at the New York Public Library dipped into the institution’s vast archive of historical maps and converted a tract of uptown Manhattan land into a Minecraft world. The video above shows Fort Washington — near 160th Street and the Hudson River — as it looked in 1860, according to the vintage contour map […]
There are two certainties in life: New Year’s Eve will never live up to the hype and you will constantly be surrounded by people waxing nostalgic about the good old days. Unfortunately for the good old days, they weren’t all that good. No matter what era you pick in New York City’s history, it has […]
Just in time for this afternoon’s nice weather, here’s a series of 1960s-era photos of Coney Island from photographer Aaron Rose. Check out that muscleman! Rose’s work will be displayed in “In a World of Their Own: Coney Island Photographs,” an exhibition opening next Friday at the Museum of the City of New York. “In a World […]
As Curbed points out, the news archive British Pathé just put 85,000 historical newsreels onto its YouTube channel, one of which is this delightfully old-timey segment on the 1964 World’s Fair. It’s timely, and not just because the fair’s 50th anniversary is this week. The New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, built for the Fair […]
